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Diy winterize. Fill motor with rv or marine antifreeze or just drain water plugs?


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2018 tomcat. Live in northern Utah. Boat is stored indoors but not insulated. I know some people and dealers suck antifreeze into the motor and leave it in there rather than just pulling the motor drain plugs. Inmar manual states to do just the draining. No mention of antifreeze. Which do you guys do?  And to those that do suck antifreeze into motor. How do you do so? Regular RV type antifreeze?
 

When doing the ballast bags...do you just run the pumps for a few seconds to clear water out of pump then dump some antifreeze down overflow holes?   
 

—thanks for always helping. 

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If you do the RV anti-freeze, you still drain all the water first. Then replace the plugs and suck in the AF. If you just suck in the AF without draining, you run a very high risk of the AF being diluted too much by the water and not having the protection. 

Lots of people just drain.... I personally drain all the water, then re-install the plugs and then suck in 5 gallons of RV anti-freeze. Different reasons on why or why not to do it. It certainly is not needed if you drain everything correctly and make sure no pockets of water are left, I do it cause I believe it adds a layer of protection against potential corrosion during layup. You do need to make sure you use a RV AF that does not have alcohol in it tho.

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4 hours ago, Infinitysurf said:

If you do the RV anti-freeze, you still drain all the water first. Then replace the plugs and suck in the AF. If you just suck in the AF without draining, you run a very high risk of the AF being diluted too much by the water and not having the protection. 

Lots of people just drain.... I personally drain all the water, then re-install the plugs and then suck in 5 gallons of RV anti-freeze. Different reasons on why or why not to do it. It certainly is not needed if you drain everything correctly and make sure no pockets of water are left, I do it cause I believe it adds a layer of protection against potential corrosion during layup. You do need to make sure you use a RV AF that does not have alcohol in it tho.

same here,,, also keeps the impeller from drying out. They will actually last many seasons. 

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Yes, motor needs to run in order to pull in antifreeze.   Whether using fake a lake or disconnecting main water hose in engine bay. Its helpful to have 2 people so one can start it while other is feeding it antifreeze because you don't want engine to run without fluids going through.  

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Is a 2018 not using the Indmar Raptor? If so, its a partially closed cooling engine isnt it, so you would not be draining the engine, just the exhaust and raw water intake portion. 

With that said, its best to drain all the water first. Marine/RV A/F is designed for use at 100%. Diluting into a system full of water, will raise its freeze point. This usually does not take long, especially the 2nd season. It also does not require any more A/F then the system hold. No need to keep pumping it in until you see a color change. 

Even then, of you do a proper drain, A/F is not needed. Shops like to use a tattle tail. If someone comes back in the spring and claims a cracked block, and the dealer opens the plugs and finds lake water coming out, the jigs up. 

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Thats a really good tattle tail. Funny. So do you guys pull the hose clamp off the side that is past the strainer and thats where you shove a funnel?  (Just verifying that its ok to disconnect hose each season and it doesn’t become brittle or an issue). I saw inmar makes the strainer pro that has a hose hook up already built into the strainer. Kinda slick. Anyone use one of those? 

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